In this episode, I talk with Georg Petschnig, founder of Paper for iPad, and General Manager at WeTransfer. Georg talks about his entry into visual thinking, Paper’s origin story, and the team’s philosophy behind Paper. If you haven’t considered Paper before, this discussion will give you insights into why Paper works the way it does.

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RUNNING ORDER

• Intro: Who is Georg?
• Paper app in a nutshell
• A little about WeTransfer
• Georg’s path into visualization
• What is Paper app meant to do?
• Breakthrough in thought and notation are intertwined
• The tools in Paper and what they were built for
• Philosophy of making Paper do they jobs they want to do
• The intentions and constraints built into the Paper app
• More voices and more opinions makes for better ideas
• The normality of sketching in some cultures
• The Paper Store
• People will find ways to make things work
• Shared values and dedicated teams of great apps like Paper
• Nerdy Paper question 1: Where did the Paper background color come from?
• Nerdy Paper question 2: Does Paper use vectors or bitmaps?
• Mike’s feature request: Layers
• The Paper Way of app design to make working more fluid
• Tools
• 3 tips
• Outro

LINKS

• Georg’s Website
• Georg on Twitter
• Georg on LinkedIn
• WeTransfer Website
• Paper Mix
• Paper Store
• Co-Founder Andrew Allen
• Interview with Andrew Allen

TOOLS

• Whiteboards
• Sticky Notes
• Moleskine Notebooks
• Muji Pens
• iPad Pro
• Apple Pencil
• Paper by WeTransfer
• Figma
• Paste
• Whimsical
• Miro
• Bloom
• MakeSpsace
• Causal

3 TIPS

1. Don’t be shy: express your point of view and be that leader!
2. Just get started.
3. These aren’t paintings, these are sketches — get stuff out.

CREDITS

• Producer: Alec Pulianas
• Theme music: Jon Schiedermayer

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To support the creation, production and hosting of the Sketchnote Army Podcast, buy one of Mike Rohde’s bestselling books. Use code ROHDE40 at Peachpit.com for 40% off!

Subscribe to the Sketchnote Podcast

You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or your favorite podcast listening source.

Support the Podcast

To support the creation, production, and hosting of the Sketchnote Army Podcast, buy one of Mike Rohde's bestselling books. Use code ROHDE40 at Peachpit.com for 40% off!

Sketchnote Lab is Mike Rohde’s space designed to bridge the gap between sketchnote theory and practice. You don’t need to be an artist to think visually. Join Mike and learn to use sketchnotes to clarify your thinking, solve problems, and move forward. Learn more about Sketchnote Lab.

Mike is the author of The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook, bestselling books that teach regular people how to start sketchnoting and build a regular sketchnoting practice.

He founded the Sketchnote Army and hosts the Sketchnote Podcast, where he interviews visual thinkers to understand what makes them tick.

Mike teaches recorded, live, and in-person workshops to accelerate your sketchnoting practice and provides personalized coaching for your specific visual-thinking challenges.

He is the illustrator of bestselling books like REWORK, REMOTE, The $100 Startup, Honest SEO, The Culture Playbook, and The Future Begins with Z.

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